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Diary reveals Erics anguish

AT the height of his success, Eric Morecambe feared his days were numbered as one half of Britain’s best-loved comedy duo. It was a dread that had afflicted his whole career, according to his taped diaries, which have emerged for the first time, writes Richard Brooks.

Morecambe — whose partnership with Ernie Wise earned him a place among showbusiness immortals — may have sung Bring Me Sunshine with his sidekick but he believed he would be lucky to stay at the top “for another 18 months” in 1977, when their Christmas television show attracted a record 29m viewers.

Not long before he died of a massive heart attack in 1984, he recorded his worries. “You can’t really explain television fear,” he said. “It’s the fear of the oyster at low tide.”

He had wanted to live a quieter life after his first heart attack in 1967, but it was loyalty to Wise